The Investment Marketing and Innovation Awards are back to reward the hard working innovative people and companies in the investment world. The awards categories cover both marketing and proposition development, as well as direct and digital marketing. They are designed to recognise and reward creativity and innovation within the sector.

Investment Week is delighted to be hosting the 25th Fund Manager of the Year Awards on Thursday 25 June ONLINE. This year's ceremony is a key part of Investment Week's 25th anniversary celebrations in 2020 and we will be presenting awards for Outstanding Fund Manager over 25 Years and Outstanding Contribution over 25 Years on the night. A flagship event for the investment industry for a quarter of a century, the Fund Manager of the Year Awards honour fund managers and groups at the top of their game who have demonstrated consistently strong performance for investors and whom the judging panel believe have the potential to continue to outperform in the future.

The Sustainable Funds to Watch series from Investment Week allows sponsors to show-case up and coming or evolving funds and managers to some of the most influential fund selectors in the UK. Both Funds to Watch Winter and Funds to Watch Autumn are two day mixed asset class conferences taking place in London. The conferences consist of a mixture of streams including funds under £250m, boardroom sessions aimed at more established groups, and quick fire presentations offered to groups by editorial direction.
This event is invitation only.

In this exclusive magazine exploring the evolution of quality and income ETF strategies, King reveals that each ETF follows an investment strategy developed by the group's in-house research team that leverages fundamental active insights to inform the factor definitions and applies portfolio construction principles to mitigate the unintended biases.

David Cumming, Aviva Investors' chief investment officer for equities, last year witnessed turbulent times for UK equities but he remains positive about the market in which he has a personal as well as a professional stake.

Vanguard's Gray: European equities may 'soon look attractive'

Investors could be forgiven for thinking that nowhere is an immediately appealing prospect for investment right now, least of all Europe.

It was being hit by the downturn in world trade before the coronavirus outbreak. Its economies have been hit particularly hard by the shutdown of both people and business as governments step up their efforts to suppress the virus.

The picture is far from clear, but we believe that continental Europe and the UK are already in recession due to strict government lockdown measures, which involve school and business closures and restrictions on social interactions.

Coronavirus is particularly affecting Italy and Spain. Germany and France seem to be coping better, but will inevitably suffer following the implementation of strict virus containment measures.

Early indications are that China's economy is in for a hard landing in 2020, albeit that it may pull out fairly sharply.

Under a scenario where the lockdown in Europe is lifted by the early stages of summer, and with aggressive fiscal and monetary policy measures, we could see a rebound in growth in the third quarter that would make Europe's recession sharp but relatively short.

If the lockdown lasts until September or even to the end of the year, however, there is a greater risk of some permanent "scarring" - the risk that GDP may not get back to its pre-virus trajectory.

The good news is that central banks and governments have acted fast. The European Central Bank (ECB) has unveiled a €750bn programme to buy government and corporate debt until the end of the year.

The Bank of England has cut its bank rate to an all-time low of 0.1% and will increase holdings of UK government and corporate bonds by £200bn.